Editorial: N.J. bear hunt alternatives should be considered before blasting away to trim population

Too many animals have been caught in the no-bear’s-land between New Jersey’s developing communities and its wilderness.

Take, for instance, a bruin known as No. 6131. It is a frequent explorer of suburban regions, where the sight of a bear causes double takes. Looking for love, or perhaps lunch, the young male has been found and captured five times in just 16 months. His travels have taken him from the woods of Parsippany to the highways of Hightstown.

There have been other cases of the state’s indigenous black bears meandering into urban areas — even Trenton. Those collisions of civilization and wild animal represent a danger to both. New Jersey officials have responded to the increasing frequency of bears straying into populated areas with hunts to control the estimated 3,400 bears in the state.

Following a December hunt that culled nearly 600 bears, another hunt has been scheduled for this December. Jeff Tittel, New Jersey Sierra Club director, says that decision “is all about hunting and not about managing bears.“

Conservation groups have vigorously opposed the hunts as an ineffective answer to the problem. There is merit in the argument that the hunts, which have taken place in New Jersey’s most undeveloped areas in the northwest, target bears living naturally and beyond human communities. Rogues, such as the peripatetic No. 6131, are still at large.

A better approach, says Mr. Tittel, would be “a zonal hunt, where hunters start at the perimeter of each zone and move from where the development is toward the center of the zone, trying to eliminate bears living closest to human populations.”

However, we wonder, as the Sierra Club and other environmental and conservatory groups do, whether there is a need for another hunt at all so soon.

There are more humane and responsible ways to regulate the state’s bear population than annual hunts, notably a greater effort to convince those living in proximity to bears to reduce enticements such as bird feeders, keep outdoor grills clean and closed, and put electric fences around compost piles.

Most important, New Jersey residents must pay closer attention to garbage control. Bears that find abundant and accessible stores of garbage will rely on that food source and constantly return to the easy pickings.

A campaign to get out the word about the simple deterrent of bear-resistant trash containers and the dangers of feeding bears, as well as better enforcement of garbage-control regulations, would continue cutting down the instances of scavenging bears.